I am always excited about new research, especially in the field of nutrition and natural medicine. So it gives me great pleasure to announce our support of an Australian researcher, Dr Bamini Gopinath, who is exploring dietary and lifestyle interventions into Australia’s leading cause of blindness – Macular Degeneration.

Dr Bamini Gopinath is the recipient of the 2013-14 Blackmores Dr Paul Beaumont Research Fellowship. The fellowship is valued at $100,000 over two years and is largely funded by Blackmores Institute and the Blackmore Foundation with support from the Macular Degeneration Foundation’s research fund.

Dr Gopinath is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Millennium Institute and will be working under the supervision of Professor Paul Mitchell, one of the world’s leading experts in Macular Degeneration. Her proposed research involves a detailed analysis of the 15 year data from the landmark Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) to improve knowledge of the nutritional and lifestyle risk and protective factors (particularly dietary antioxidant and supplement intake, diet quality and food groups). This is expected to help explain the causes of disease, improve early detection of people at risk of progression, and facilitate new approaches to therapy.

Dr Gopinath has a remarkable track record with over 70 research publications in the last five years, more than half on which she was the lead author. I’m delighted to support her continued research and look forward to the results of her work.